In the summer of 1621, the Plymouth colonists finally had reason for optimism — until 16-year-old John Billington wandered off and got lost in the woods. While we commemorate 1620 …
Religion & Social Movements
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One rainy day in the autumn of 1875, a writer named A.A. Smith met Lady Blanche Murphy, the daughter of an earl, on a sidewalk in North Conway, N.H. She …
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On May 11, 1659, the Massachusetts Puritans banned Christmas and ordered anyone caught celebrating to pay a fine of five shillings. That meant no mincemeat pie during what used to …
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The four women who cooked that first Thanksgiving probably didn’t feel all that thankful when their husbands invited 90 guests, all Wampanoag men, to eat with them. They were the …
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Harry Houdini, the world’s most famous magician, came to Boston in 1924 to expose as a charlatan a popular medium named “Margery.” He succeeded, but in the process he got …
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Charles Stearns Wheeler built a shanty in 1836 near Flint’s Pond in Lincoln, Mass., and the next summer Henry David Thoreau spent six weeks at it. It is widely accepted …
